Review | Firewalker by Josephine Angelini

Posted September 3, 2015 by Asheley in review, Uncategorized / 0 Comments

Firewalker by Josephine Angelini
Series: The Worldwalker Trilogy #2
Published by Feiwel & Friends
Publish Date: September 1, 2015
Source: Publisher
Find it here:  Goodreads / Amazon 



“You think I’m a monster, but my choices, as ruthless as they seem, are justified.”

Lily is back in her own universe, and she’s ready to start a new life with Rowan by her side. True, she almost died in the Pyre that fueled their escape from New Salem, and must hide her magic for the safety of everyone she cares about, but compared to fighting the Woven, the monstrous creatures inhabiting the alternate Salem, life is looking pretty good.


Unfortunately, Lillian, ruthless ruler of the 13 Cities, is not willing to let Lily go that easily. If she can’t persuade Lily to return to her world, she will force her to come back by doing away with the ones she loves. (summery excerpt from Goodreads) 
Firewalker by Josephine Angelini

My Thoughts:  Firewalker by Josephine Angelini was one of my top-anticipated fall 2015 books. So often I find myself saying “I should have read this book sooner! I don’t know why I waited so long!” but with Firewalker, I wish I would have waited until the final book’s release so I could binge-read. While some of the things that I loved about the first book only got better in the second book, others became really painful, and it’s gonna be a very, very long wait for me.

Like before, this book mainly takes place in both worlds: our world and the other world. I particularly loved the world-building in the other world. I had a brilliant time building the visuals in my head to go along with whatever the characters were doing at any given time. In fact, that world felt a little bigger this time around, and and more fully-described, which just made it better. The second half of the book had a quicker pace than the first half, and when I reached a certain point I found that I couldn’t put the book down. As far as the fantasy aspect of this story, I think that this is a fitting sequel. The story here is unique, I think, and the mixture of witch mythology and parallel universes is cool. 

So what was so painful? The romance. What I wanted to happen and what actually happened couldn’t have been possibly been any more opposite. This broke my heart. (Days after finishing this book, I’m still obsessing about this.) 

Early in the story, secrets crept into this relationship. Also, both Lily and Rowan had someone from their pasts hovering in the background. [Highlight the middle of this paragraph for spoilers related to the romance: There is no real love triangle in this installment, but this book set it up nicely for a potential triangle showdown in the finale. THIS BROKE MY HEART. Lily and Rowan seemed determined for a portion of the book to make their relationship work, but each knew about the other’s past love hovering around in the background and neither did anything to shut this down. Also, the secrets were just a mess that ended with some bad, bad behavior. The romance is up in the air at the end of the book.] All of this made the romance between Lily and Rowan a little tense, in my opinion, and I felt throughout the entire book like I was waiting for something bad to happen. 


After finishing Firewalker, I feel like I’m treading water while I’m waiting for the third book to come and rescue me with answers to a bunch of questions and unresolved issues. If that sounds dramatic, it’s because that’s how I feel after wanting this book so much and then the romance and then – 


– a cliffhanger ending. Cliffhanger city


The final book has the potential to bring either the joy or the pain – I have no clue! What I do know is: Lily is more powerful than I originally realized, I don’t trust Lillian’s reasons for anything even though she insists they are good (because, whoa), and the book ended with some very adventurous, action-filled scenes. I’m excited to see what will happen with some of the characters and I want to see more of Juliet (she’s awesome!) and I’m really, really nervous about what will go down with this romance. I have FEELINGS that I can’t really share here because NO SPOILING but my word, I don’t even know what to say about what I even WANT to happen in the last installment. (I put quite a bit of emphasis in that sentence-don’t let that get lost on you.) My last impressions of some of these characters is not good; I do not like the bad behavior that some have shown throughout the course of this book. Still, I’ll be reading the finale to see how everything ends. 


I’M NERVOUS ALREADY. 


I recommend Firewalker by Josephine Angelini to readers that enjoy great world-building and fantasy, and to those that enjoy stories about witches. 

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Firewalker will appeal to fans of:

Young Adult Fantasy/Paranormal
Witches
Alternate Universes
Great World-Building

Firewalker by Josephine Angelini
is currently available for purchase.

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More by Josephine Angelini:



Asheley

About Asheley

Asheley is a Southern girl. She loves Carolina blue skies, Ben & Jerry's ice cream, and NC craft beer. She loves all things history but prefers books over everything.

You can find her somewhere in North Carolina, daydreaming about the ocean.

Find Asheley on Litsy @intothehallofbooks!

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